From a month ago

So it's been about 10 days since i arrived in Japan and so far i'm absolutely loving it. I live in a room that's fairly large compared to some of the holes i've been told about in Tokyo and such. It's part of one of the official dorms for Ritsumeikan in Kyoto and the residents include people from the U.S., sweden, japan, korea, china, italy, U.K., Australia, France, and Germany for instance. The common language is definately English though, so unfortunately i haven't been speaking a ton of Japanese, but it'll pick up since school's starting tomorrow.  Here are some random thoughts:

This time around it isn't quite as magical as when i first visited Japan last year as a tourist since i'm more or less familiar with the city now, yet there have been a couple things that blew me away nevertheless.

Last week we had orientations and placement tests at the University to determine where we stand in terms of language ability. Somehow they determined that i'm upper intermediate, which i find a little intimidating, but we'll see what it ends up being like tomorrow. In my spoken interview test, they asked me what my major was, so i said geography, then they asked "What kinds of things do you study in geography?" I don't think i can really answer that in English. I wonder how many of you can come up with simple explanations on the spot of what you study in Chemistry/Math/English etc. it's harder than i thought. My other 2 international relations courses are "International Sociology" which essentially studies numerous cultures and the conflicts that arise worldwide because of that, and a course that studies the region of Southeast Asia. I figure it'll be useful and come in handy since i'm plannin on hiking through there in february/march.

They have an amazing assortment of clubs at Ritsumeikan and once things get off the ground i'm plannin on joining the boxing club, and the rock commune or jazz club.

I bought a fridge for my room, and a bike, as well as a new guitar and amplifier. The bike and fridge together cost only $80 since they're part of a used goods 'shop' that exists in the dorm whereby previous students sell back their stuff and newbs like us come and buy them, that = big money savings. Those things are all necessities for me here, especially the bike. I love how everyone bikes everywhere around Kyoto, but when i get back to Vancouver i doubt i'll ever ride anywhere, it's too spaced out and there are too many hills. I almost got hit by a motorbike today too, every second corner seems to be a blind one and once in a while someone comes flying around it. Our last orientation this morning was like an hour about how not to get into accidents on bikes.

If paperwork were the devil, then Japan would be hell. I've had to sign so many forms for this and that, i'm sure it'd be much much simpler in Vancouver. At one point we had to fill out a sheet in order to get a green sheet that we had to fill out in order to get another green sheet that when filled in and submitted would allow us to pick up an alien registration card a month later (in the meantime we carry around ANOTHER green sheet, woo!). I'm almost done with all of it though, next comes health insurance, then getting a cell phone hopefully, sigh.

Anyway, next time i write will probably be when i've got something more to complain about, but right now everything is perfect, the transition from muggy hot weather to milder fall weather included.